Glocal Issues in Higher Education

English-medium instruction (EMI) is a complex educational innovation and a prerequisite for active participation in the process of internationalizing academia. Given its impact on today’s universities, it is crucial that EMI should be effectively and responsibly implemented.

This book draws on a range of theoretical and empirical insights to explore the implications of EMI for stakeholders and describe the measures that should be taken to capitalize on its strengths and respond to its challenges. Using questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation, the authors investigate two academic communities – one that has undertaken instruction in English and one that has not – to weave together teacher and student attitudes, experiences, expectations and needs, along with comparative findings from classroom practice in Croatian and English.

By analysing EMI in a local academic context against the backdrop of the global higher education landscape, this book offers a glocal perspective and opens up new avenues for reflection and action that will be relevant toeducational institutions undergoing change.

Chapter 7: Insights into EMI in practice

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CHAPTER 7

Insights into EMI in practice

In this chapter we explore the views of the students and staff at FEMP. We examine the teachers’ perspectives in section 7.1, and in sections 7.2 and 7.3, we focus on the views of the students in the English-taught programme and Croatian-taught programme, respectively. In section 7.4, we report the findings based on the observation of teaching practices conducted in English and Croatian. The discussion which follows integrates the perspectives obtained from the various sources of data.

As for the teachers’ perspectives, we first enquire into the perceived differences between teaching in English and in the native language. Next, we report the challenges the teachers face and, on a more positive note, we analyse the perceived advantages. Furthermore, we present some measures which the participants believe should be taken to alleviate the challenges. The role of language in EMI is also discussed. We conclude with the teachers’ attitudes towards the impact of EMI on the Croatian language, culture and identity.

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